Then, once he arrived, the restaurant, Captain Steve’s, was so crowded with supporters that Mr. Santorum had trouble weaving his way to the microphone.

And just about the time Mr. Santorum was introduced, a pair of waiters pushed their way through the crowd to deliver a tray of food to a booth directly behind where Mr. Santorum was standing.

So what did Mr. Santorum do? Well. He helped hand out the food, of course, drawing enthusiastic applause from the standing-room only crowd.

Once he got down to business, Mr. Santorum compared his Republican rivals to Goldilocks and the three bears.

He compared Newt Gingrich to the soup that is too hot. He said the Mr. Gingrich can’t focus on issues and comes up with too many ideas while not having the focus to implement the ideas. “Being a president isn’t an intellectual exercise,” Mr. Santorum said. “It’s an exercise in leadership…You gotta have clear policies.”

As for Mitt Romney, Mr. Santorum called him “soup that is a little too cold.” He said Mr. Romney doesn’t provide “the clear solid contrast that we need” to defeat President Barack Obama.

He concluded his allegory by saying: “So you folks have a choice: too hot, too cold or just right.” Read More »

Rick Santorum‘s presidential campaign seemed to be cruising along in South Carolina. But it just got a flat tire – literally.

Rick Santorum and his wife, Karen, arrive in a pickup truck to a town hall event in Fort Mill, S.C. (WSJ Photo By Brody Mullins)

Mr. Santorum was scheduled to speak at 1:45 p.m. EST at a town hall here in Fort Mill, S.C. But an announcement was just made to an overflowing restaurant that Mr. Santorum will be late because his bus blew a tire on the highway.

We’re following developments, so check back later.

UPDATE: Mr. Santorum and his wife, Karen, arrived in a pickup truck to the town hall event. Read More »

CHARLESTON, S.C. — Newt Gingrich is surging in the polls and garnered standing ovations at last night’s GOP presidential debate, but his campaign canceled his first event Friday at a college stadium here due to poor attendance.

The basketball stadium at the College of Charleston where Newt Gingrich was to speak was nearly empty Friday morning. (WSJ Photo by Danny Yadron)

Mr. Gingrich was scheduled to speak at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference, a four-day event held in the basketball stadium at the College of Charleston. But the stands were all-but empty about five minutes before the former House speaker was set to speak, and his appearance was called off.

Mr. Gingrich will appear later Friday morning at a Charleston children’s hospital.

“The organizers and the campaign have mutually decided that, based on attendance, we are going to decline attendance at this event to allow more time to visit the children’s hospital,” Gingrich spokesman Nathan Naidu told reporters. “It was a mutual thing between the higher-ups and the organizers.”

Shortly afterward, former Rep. Bob Livingston of Louisiana, a Gingrich surrogate, told reporters that Mr. Gingrich canceled due to a scheduling conflict. The campaign said it did not independently promote the event. Read More »

The four remaining GOP candidates gathered Thursday night for a debate in Charleston, S.C. , and it got off to a testy start. Newt Gingrich fired the first shot at CNN moderator John King, saying he was “appalled” that the first question in a debate two days before South Carolina’s pivotal primary was about an ex-wife’s claim that he wanted an “open marriage.” Meanwhile, front-runner Mitt Romney was put on the spot over his wealth as well as his views on abortion and the health-care law he pushed for as governor of Massachusetts.

The final debate before the South Carolina primary brought into sharp relief why Newt Gingrich is re-emerging as a contender and Mitt Romney is stumbling toward the finish line.

With a rousing denunciation of the news media right out of the gate, Gingrich electrified the conservative audience here and temporarily defused an issue that poses a lethal threat to his campaign. Then he deftly portrayed his “grandiose” persona” as nothing less than fully American. He also managed to tweak Romney with an act of strategic showmanship: recognizing Romney’s unease about releasing his income tax returns, the former House speaker released his own during the debate, baiting his rival into yet another painful episode about his wealth.

Romney, by comparison, worked his way through a series of halting answers on entirely predictable subjects, from his taxes to abortion to health care. All are issues he’s struggled with throughout the campaign, and it was never more evident than Thursday night that Romney hasn’t put them to rest – or even figured out how to speak about them comfortably. …

Republican presidential hopefulNewt Gingrich appeared to time the release of his 2010 tax return for maximum impact on front-runner Mitt Romney, who has delayed releasing his own tax information. Mr. Gingrich released his 2010 return, dated March of 2011, about 20 minutes into Thursday night’s critical campaign debate in South Carolina.

But the former House speaker’s tax return also was likely to prompt lots of curiosity about Mr. Gingrich himself, his taxes, and how he makes and spends his money – or doesn’t.

Mr. Gingrich’s return lists his occupation as “consultant,” and his wife Callista’s as “executive.”

The return showed the couple took in $3,162,424 in total income from various businesses, mostly family-owned or affiliated, and owed $994,708 in federal taxes.

His effective income-tax rate was relatively high – about 31.5%, a lot more than Mr. Romney’s roughly 15% in recent years. That was another point of contrast that Mr. Gingrich has been seeking to emphasize in recent days, following Mr. Romney’s disclosure of his effective rate a few days ago… Read More »

CHARLESTON, S.C.—Conservative voters cast a disapproving eye on GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich Thursday in the wake of his ex-wife’s claim he had asked her for an open marriage, but stopped short of saying the developments would halt his momentum.

Many Republicans in the Palmetto State already viewed Mr. Gingrich with some wariness over his personal history and Thursday’s ABC News interview with Mr. Gingrich’s ex-wife, Marianne Gingrich, reinforced their concerns over his values. In the interview, to be aired tonight after the GOP presidential debate, Ms. Gingrich said her then-husband had requested an “open marriage” that would allow him to continue an affair with Callista Bisek, now his third wife.

“I don’t think that is the ethical or moral approach to take and not what I would want the leader of the free world to condone,” Neita Wiese, a member of a Charleston Republican women’s group, said Thursday in an interview at the Southern Republican Leaders Conference.

Though disapproving, many voters here said they would wait to hear Mr. Gingrich’s response.

“I may, in the end, vote for him, but his values are different than ours,” Dawn Ulmer, a homemaker from Sullivan’s Island, said at a campaign stop for rival Rick Santorum on Thursday… Read More »

Here’s Washington Wire’s live blog of Thursday night’s GOP debate in Charleston, S.C., the last before Saturday night’s primary. It came on a day when Texas Gov. Rick Perry dropped out of the presidential race, leaving only four candidates on the stage: Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum and Ron Paul.

The debate got off to a tense start when Mr. Gingrich was asked by CNN moderator John King to respond to allegations by an ex-wife that he had asked for an “open marriage.” Mr. Gingrich chastised Mr. King for asking the question, calling the assertions and the media coverage “as close to despicable as anything I can imagine.”

“The destructive, vicious, negative nature of much of the news media makes it harder to govern this country, harder to attract decide people to run for public office,” Mr. Gingrich said to rousing applause from the audience. “I am appalled that you would begin a presidential debate on a topic like that.”

Keep reading:

7:09 pm (EST)

Mary Lu Carnevale

The candidates have begun arriving for the CNN/Southern Republican Leadership Conference debate in Charleston. Former Sen. Rick Santorum just walked through the doors.

CHARLESTON, S.C.—Mitt Romney’s campaign turned the tables on Newt Gingrich Thursday, urging the former House speaker to release his congressional ethics report as it tries to deflect criticism that Mr. Romney hasn’t released his tax returns.

Mr. Gingrich faced a House ethics investigation in the 1990s and was ultimately fined about $300,000 for ethical violations. Former New Hampshire Gov. John Sununu, a Romney supporter, called the records of Mr. Gingrich’s ethics investigation a “very important piece of opaque material,” in a conference call with reporters Thursday.

“That must be so damning that that’s the kind of thing that would be an October surprise,” Mr. Sununu said. Read More »

Newt Gingrich wanted an open marriage, former wife Marianne Gingrich said in an interview with ABC News.

ABC just put out a video clip and excerpts of the interview, which is scheduled to air on Nightline tonight after the GOP presidential debate in South Carolina. Ms. Gingrich, who was married to the former House speaker for 18 years, said she is disclosing details of her marriage now to tell voters what she knows about Mr. Gingrich’s character. The two divorced in 1999, after, she says, Mr. Gingrich had suggested an open marriage that would allow him to continue an affair with Callista Bisek, the congressional aide who later became his third wife.

Ms. Gingrich told ABC’s Brian Ross that after Mr. Gingrich made that suggestion, “I just stared at him and he said, ‘Callista doesn’t care what I do’… He wanted an open marriage and I refused.”

The interview has caused a stir, airing so close to Saturday’s GOP primary in South Carolina and at a time when Mr. Gingrich has had some success positioning himself as an alternative to front-runner Mitt Romney. The Gingrichcampaign Wednesday night sought to limit damage from the interview with Ms. Gingrich, the second wife, releasing an open letter from his daughters from his first marriage to officials at the network. Read More »

Suddenly, multiple signs indicate Saturday’s South Carolina primary is turning into a nail-biter.

Polls show the race tightening dramatically since Monday night’s feisty debate. Mitt Romney, who has been up by more than 10 points for most of the month, is flashing signs of fear, heaping negative ads and other forms of scorn on his closest rival, Newt Gingrich.

By all accounts, Mr. Gingrich ran off with the Monday night Fox News/Wall Street Journal debate in Myrtle Beach, and polls out Thursday reflect that.

The latest NBC News/Marist poll, conducted Monday and Tuesday, put Mr. Romney up by 10 points over Mr. Gingrich, with Rick Santorum, Ron Paul and Mr. Perry bringing up the rear. But when the pollsters looked only at responses on Tuesday, after the debate, the Romney lead was cut to just five points… Read More »

About Washington Wire

Washington Wire is one of the oldest standing features in American journalism. Since the Wire launched on Sept. 20, 1940, the Journal has offered readers an informal look at the capital. Now online, the Wire provides a succession of glimpses at what’s happening behind hot stories and warnings of what to watch for in the days ahead. The Wire is led by Reid J. Epstein, with contributions from the rest of the bureau. Washington Wire now also includes Think Tank, our home for outside analysis from policy and political thinkers.